Woodrow Wilson’s honeymoon hideaway

On this day in 1885: Woodrow Wilson and the former Ellen Louise Axson, married the previous day in Savannah, Ga., arrive at their honeymoon cottage in Arden. They will spend about two months in the four-room clapboard house while he prepares to begin his teaching career as professor of history at Bryn Mawr College. She compiles the index for a new edition of his acclaimed “Congressional Government, A Study in American Politics.” They read and take long walks through the rhododendron-crowded mountains.

In 1914, during her husband’s first term as president, Mrs. Wilson will die suddenly; Edith Bolling Galt, whom Wilson marries 16 months later, virtually assumes the presidency after he suffers a paralyzing stroke during his second term.

One thought on “Woodrow Wilson’s honeymoon hideaway”

  1. Arriving in Arden the day after they’re wedding in Savannah must’ve been quite some feat. Obviously, they took one or more trains on the journey from Savannah, ultimately the Southern to Asheville, perhaps out of Columbia, as the Southern didn’t serve Savannah. A person could, however, take the Southern from Columbia to Asheville, though I’m not sure how directly. I don’t know if there was train service from Asheville to Arden. Arden’s near Asheville, a little to its west or southwest, I believe. Perhaps they arrived by a hired carriage or something. Wilson & Ellen had a chance meeting in Asheville one day. They’d met & courted previously back in Ellen’s home in Rome, Ga. So surprised & delighted they were to see each other, Wilson proposed to her, which Ellen accepted. Why Savannah was chosen as the site for their wedding, I’ve yet to learn.

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